EPISODE 08
Episode Overview
It’s Coming: The Next Deadly Pandemic Threats Looming Over America
Air Date: 10.14.25 | Duration: 27:11 min.
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About Episode 08:
In Episode 08 of Threat Level RED, host Charles Denyer presents a powerful, deeply researched exploration into America’s most urgent public health threat: the next pandemic. As COVID‑19 fades into history, the conditions for a new global outbreak are intensifying—and this episode makes it clear that the next crisis is not a matter of if, but when.
This episode begins by confronting the emerging landscape of pandemic risk. Experts broadly agree that the next global pandemic could arrive by 2030, driven by zoonotic spillover, climate change, and environmental degradation. Diseases like H5N1 bird flu, mpox, Oropouche virus, and antibiotic‑resistant bacteria are already spreading in unpredictable ways, and our vulnerabilities are mounting daily.
One of the most significant threats comes from the ongoing H5N1 avian influenza outbreak, which has infected poultry, livestock, and farm workers across multiple states. Though human-to-human transmission has yet to occur, the virus is evolving rapidly, adapting to mammalian hosts, and positioning itself dangerously close to a potential pandemic scenario. Experts warn that current surveillance gaps and mutations by windborne transmission could spark widespread human transmission at any moment.
Another concern is Disease X, the yet-unknown pathogen that WHO and global health agencies have placed at the center of future pandemic planning. This concept acknowledges that the next outbreak may come from a pathogen we haven’t even identified. Pandemic preparedness strategies—including “plug‑and‑play” vaccine platforms—are being built precisely to counter the unimaginable.
The forces driving these threats are not confined to virology—they’re rooted in human behavior and global trends. Rapid deforestation, intensive agriculture, mining, urban expansion, and biodiversity loss are pushing humans into closer contact with wildlife, increasing zoonotic spillover risk. Meanwhile, climate change is expanding mosquito and midge habitats, facilitating the rise of vector‑borne diseases like Oropouche fever in regions never seen before.
Vaccination and surveillance infrastructure—once America’s pandemic shield—are eroding. Resurgent measles outbreaks, declining community immunity, and slashed funding for the CDC and WHO cooperation have weakened our defenses. Experts warn that public health agencies lack the rapid-response capability needed to detect and respond to emerging threats like H5N1 or mpox before they spiral out of control
By integrating expert interviews and policy analysis, It’s Coming captures the dual reality: scientifically, we know what may hit us next—and institutionally, we’re unprepared. Virologists, epidemiologists, and policy makers share their grim calculus: antiviral treatments lag, vaccine development takes too long, and misinformation continues to erode trust in public health interventions.
The episode paints the human stakes with stark detail. Take the resurgence of measles, with 1,288 confirmed cases in 2025—the highest level in 33 years. These outbreaks are fueled by vaccine hesitancy and weakened community immunity, indicators of how fragile public health progress can be undone overnight.
Oropouche virus—a little-known tropical pathogen—is escalating across the Americas and threatens to spread beyond its traditional zones, with no vaccine or treatment currently available. The virus’s rapid rise is emblematic of the next-generation threats that could bypass detection until it’s too late.
The episode also explores strategic initiatives like BARDA and the Strategic National Stockpile. These are supposed to safeguard the nation with stocked countermeasures and rapid-response vaccine production—but chronic underinvestment and bureaucratic delays leave them less capable than ever.
Denyer confronts difficult questions: What happens if bird flu, mpox, or Disease X achieves efficient human transmission? How fast can our public health system pivot? What happens when misinformation prevents vaccination, and when under-resourced local agencies fail to detect early outbreaks? Experts stress that communication and trust are as vital as vaccines in stopping pandemics—because facts only protect if people believe them.
Despite the bleak circumstances, It’s Coming delivers actionable insights. Long-standing public health professionals outline a multi-pronged strategy: ramp up genomic surveillance with AI, expand vaccination of vulnerable populations, rebuild trust in science, strengthen global coordination, train local health workers, and ensure equitable access to diagnostics and countermeasures.
Crucially, this episode reveals how momentum is shifting—with funding cuts eroding hard-earned gains. Experts like Angela Rasmussen and Jennifer Nuzzo emphasize how reductions in H5N1 vaccine contracts, dismantled WHO collaborations, and shrinking CDC budgets are reshaping America’s pandemic footprint—and not for the better.
As the podcast concludes, listeners are left with a pressing challenge: to recognize that the next pandemic threat may not come from overseas—it may emerge from the next mutation, the next spillover, the next failure to act.
Listen and Learn.
It’s Coming is essential listening for anyone concerned with health security, public policy, or societal resilience. It’s a wake-up call that preparedness is not optional—in a world where biology, environment, politics, and misinformation converge, complacency is a choice we cannot afford.
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Production Credits: This is a Charles Denyer Productions podcast. Hosted and produced by Charles Denyer.